Thursday, 21 February 2013

European Parliament to vote on united Data Protection Legislation

Members of the European Parliament will vote this week on a European Commission proposal on Data Protection.

Private companies such as Google and Facebook are under constant scruting in respect of their privay policies and the EU are under pressure to be seen to be taking some action. The newest propsal advocates the establishment of a single set of rules on data protection and online privacy. Currently each member state applies its own laws and sanctions. The main focus of the proposal is to target large companies so it will be important that the new regulations do not impose overly onerous administrative burdens on small and medium sized companies.

Under the new propsals, each national data protection authority will be responsible for implementing the new EU law. At the moment the administrative costs of complying 27 different regulations from the member states stands at £2.3 billion a year.

A united set of regulations for all Member States is common sensical from a cost-effective perpective but it is important that the new regulations take account of the differing circumstances and resources of companies.